Eternium: Sins of the Father
Creator: Robosprog
Release Date: October 31st 2013
Plot Premise from ModDB:
It is 1884, twenty years ago, Edward, the father of Alex, went on a pilgrimage to witness a holy event known as the Eternium that occurs once a century. During this, his wife was kidnapped by cultists, never seen by the living again. His father becoming obsessed with her disappearance abandons his son, and dedicates himself completely to finding her, taking up residence in a manse in the Yorkshire moors. Twenty years later, Alexander investigates into his parent's disappearance, determined to find the truth of what happened to them.
Find more info here:
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-23328.html
Review will be SPOILER FREE! Read the whole thing after the break!
Mapping/Setting:
For starters, there is a lot of of great mapping in this mod. Hallways are well detailed with no shortage of interesting room designs. There is also a great deal huge set pieces which frankly are not all that often seen in an Amnesia mod. Nothing much more to add, because it's just flat-out good in most areas.
Scares/Atmosphere:
There is a new(?) monster in this mod, and I think his disturbing appearance greatly contributes to the fear factor in this mod. I won't go into much detail saying how he looks like, but I will say his disturbing design is one of the main things that I dreaded facing while playing this mod, and one of the greatest sources of my fear.
There is no shortage of ambient music, and sounds in Eternium. A lot of which is custom it left me wondering if some cues were pre-scripted, or just coincidentally aligning with my actions. Either way it caused me no small amount of paranoia, and while was not sufficient to make me fear going forward, was definitely enough to make me dread my footsteps for fear of hearing an extra pair of feet walking alongside mine.
Storytelling:
The story, like many Amnesia mods, is told primarily through notes. There is a surprisingly good amount of clever writing in many of the notes, and at least one line had me chuckling at how clever it was.
However the story...while it has potential...just doesn't feel like it has any life to it. The concept of the story is a good one, but when you only almost have text as the only way of telling your story explicitly, then it loses some charm, because the story just doesn't feel alive when there's nothing much to haul it up besides notes. Voice acting, or events in the world may have greatly strengthened this aspect.
Gameplay/Puzzles:
The monster timings in this mod I feel were very adequate for the most part. They never really appeared anywhere that would make them outstay their welcome.
There are't really that many complex puzzles in this mod, and many of them are quite straight-forward rarely having a huge twist, or turn.
I will have to say though that quite a bit of the level design, particularly in the second half, can be extremely confusing. I sometimes would find myself lost, and have to circle around for a very long time before I found the exit. Although a good amount of it may have been me being stupid, and just simply not having seen the exit, I still think in retrospective that it's a valid concern that your one chance for salvation is the one exit tucked away somewhere that I kept constantly missing.
I do have to applaud the "thinking forward" of employing video game generosity in this mod. Early on in the mod I was baffled at why there were so many oil cans lying around in the map only to later realize it was because the creator was thinking ahead for an exceptionally dark area which would likely eat up a lot of your saved-up oil.
Technical Issues:
Nothing too major. A couple blinking textures, and sometimes the monsters getting stuck.
Verdict: This mod has great mapping with some new interesting set pieces along with quite a terrifying atmosphere. Problems include the less-than-marvelous presented story as well as some weird level design. 7.3/10
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